POLYELECTROLYTE COMPLEXATION AND IONOTROPIC GELLATION: THE POTENTIAL NOVEL APPROACH TO DESIGN HYDROGEL PARTICULATE FOR SUSTAINED, MODULATED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: A REVIEW

The interest in using natural and chemically modified polysaccharides as a part of drug development has increased in the past two decades. For potential carriers in controlled, modulated drug delivery, great interest has also been focused on biopolymer-based hydrogels. Due to their advantages like biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low cost, biopolymers have been widely used in the development of hydrogels. Indeed, by tuning the physicochemical properties of the hydrogels with varying the degree of crosslinking either by chemical or physical or physical-chemical means these networks can be made suitable as the modulated drug delivery devices. In this present review, a focus is made on various natural polymers and their mechanism to form cross-linked hydrogel beads with suitable cations and various methods of preparation of beads. Here, it was also tried to explain the significance of polyelectrolyte complexation and ionotropic gelation approaches, as these methods show great pledge as a tool for the development of the encapsulation process and also plays an important role in controlled and modulated drug delivery system.